CalFire burns public trust

We can now add some CalFire bureaucrats to that infamous, and apparently growing, cadre of nincompoops who believe rules are for others.

We can now add some CalFire bureaucrats to that infamous, and apparently growing, cadre of nincompoops who believe rules are for others.

The details are still coming out, but the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection secretly squirreled away $3.66 million that should have gone directly into the state general fund.

OK, judged against a $130 billion budget, the millions Cal Fire hid isn't much. Had the money - settlements of lawsuits against property owners who had liability from fires - gone into the general fund, it would not have cured the state's multiyear, multibillion-dollar budget deficits.

That's hardly the point. The point is trust.

For reasons yet to be explained, Cal Fire officials apparently felt they had a right to the money, or they knew best how it should be spent, or that their department's efforts generated the funds, therefore they should stay in the department.

What we do know is that Cal Fire used the money to buy digital cameras, GPS equipment and metal detectors. They even spent $33,000 for a conference at a Pismo Beach resort, according to The Sacramento Bee.

Maybe Cal Fire needs some cameras, GPS equipment and metal detectors. There may even be a reason for a conference (although holding it at a seaside resort at a time of extreme austerity walks common sense right up to the line).

But they couldn't be bothered following the law in the same way the Parks Department didn't when officials there hid some $54 million at the same time they were planning to close parks.

And that's the biggest loss, not the use of the needed money. It's that these officials have given the public yet another reason to doubt government officials know what they're supposed to do and can be trusted to do it.